Stand by for Launching: The Luxury Thames Launch

The English, being an island race, have always had a strong naval tradition and an in-built fondness for messing about in boats, and this is nowhere more evident than on a sunny weekend deep in the Thames Valley, where the surface of the water teems with cruisers, dinghies and punts, and a queue of river traffic basks in the sunshine at each set of lock gates.

The variety of craft seen on the water is enormous, from kayaks and Mirror dinghies through the wide fibreglass bath-tubs of the hire cruisers seen almost everywhere, to the radar-carrying ocean-going motor yachts, but the most elegant by far is a craft peculiar to the reaches of the Upper Thames around the Oxford – Henley area.

This is a long, low, slender craft known as the Slipper Launch characterised by the way the stern of the boat disappears quietly into the water in a long sloping curve. Designed primarily for its looks, the Slipper Launch is rakish and elegant and could be described as a waste of practical boat space, but no other launch on the river looks as good.

The Slipper Launch appeared on the Thames in 1912 as the first petrol-engined river craft, powered by an engine imported from America, and was the brain-child of the young John Andrews of the Bourne End boat-building family. The rakish new launch with its modern petrol engine soon caught the imagination of the Thames boating fraternity and became a classic design powered by Austin light-weight marine engines, and fitted with stylish moveable basket-work chairs ideal for the placid waters of the Thames Valley. The demand for the Andrews family boat prompted the design of their trade-mark product, the well-named twenty-five foot Greyhound Slipper Launch. It was an unusual design for the times, but the bright young things of the post war years with their sporty roadsters and fast life-style wanted something equally fast and elegant on the water, and the slipper launch not only looked fast and rakish, but was capable of fourteen knots whilst the clever design of the sloping stern caused very little wash at speed.

By the thirties the Andrews Yard offered twenty, twenty-five and thirty foot versions of their Greyhound range powered by a choice of Austin marine engines to suit your pocket, and with their forward car-style steering-wheels and dashboard controls were the most elegant form of powered Thames craft. The slipper launch featured a rudimentary split windscreen which could support a full-length folding canvas hood, and a large rectangular cockpit furnished with wicker tub chairs and often folding side-tables. At the rear of the cockpit was a full-width upholstered seat perfect for lounging on in striped blazer and boater as one took tea. The most distinctive feature of the slipper launch was the long sloping stern which met the flattened rear section of the bottom at the water-line and supported the ensign staff. You could have the craft of your choice from Andrews’ yard for between £200 – £300 in the thirties, but the piece de résistance of the Andrews stable was the Baby Greyhound, a fifty foot launch powered by a six cylinder 40hp engine. This very special slipper launch had all the best mahogany and chrome fittings, a very nippy 18 knots speed and enough basket-work chairs for eight in comfort, but would set you back almost £700 in 1937.